Internet vs Intranet – Difference between Internet and Intranet

Worldwide system of connected networks. Each network consist millions of devices like computers, servers, routers , printers and many other devices.

A private network, within an Enterprise or Organization.

Users

Unlimited

Limited

Accessible to

Everyone

Authorized users

Identified by

Unique IP address among all the computers in the world.

Also identified by IP address, which is unique among all the computers in that particular intranet.

Safety

Not safe as intranet because anyone can access it and share anything.

More safe because only authorized users can share information.

Owned by

No one owns the internet

Can be owned by a organization, company or enterprise.

Network Type

Public

Private

Traffic

Large traffic

Less traffic

Connection provided by

Collection of LAN, WAN, MAN

LAN, WAN

Let’s see these differences in detail:

1. What is: Internet is a network that uses telephone lines, cables, satellites and wireless connection to connect all the computers and other devices in the world. Anyone can access the internet and can share or get the information from internet. All modern computers, mobile phones , gaming consoles, even the televisions can access the internet.

On other hand, intranet is also used for sharing the information but within an restricted area. For example, a network between an organization where only staff of the organization can get access to the information. We can also say that intranet can be accessed from internet but with restriction.

2. Users: As internet can be accessed by anyone, so the number of users in Internet is very large. In 2015, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) estimated 3.2 billion users of internet. As of the most recent period, the number of internet users worldwide was 3.58 billion (in 2017).

Whereas in Intranet, the number of users is depended on the organization. So the number of users is limited in Intranet.

3. Accessible to: As mentioned above, internet is accessible to everyone, anyone can access the internet who have a device that is capable of connection to internet.

But on other hand, intranet can be accessed only by the employees of an organizations who have authority to access it.

4. Identified by: In internet, when computer a connects with the network then an IP Address assigned to each computer or device. Each computer assigned by a unique IP address. So computer can be identified by IP address.

In intranet, each device have its unique IP address, which is unique all among other computers within an organization.

5. Safety: As in internet, anyone can access it, not everyone out there wants to use internet for good purposes. Some people use it for stealing personal information by making fake websites, track location of individual, get access to your database, and many other cyber crimes. That’s why internet is less secure then intranet.

Whereas in intranet, there are limited persons who can access network and well known by organization, that’s why intranet is more safe and secure than internet.

6. Traffic: Traffic is the flow of the data across the network and it directly depends on the number of users. As mentioned above , internet have a large number of users. So millions of the users can share their files or data to other user at the same time. That’s why Traffic on internet is very high.

On other hand, intranet has limited number of users, so traffic is low in intranet.

7. Connection provided by: An intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs).

While internet is a network which consists of LANs, WANs, MANs.

Comment below if you have doubts related to above tutorial for difference between internet and intranet.